First though, have you see that finally the General Blogger has a new theme? Still have some tweaking to do, but hey, I like this theme.
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Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now?
This NASA Scientist Thinks We Could Be
Illustration By Julian Garcia
Two years ago, Rich Terrile appeared on Through the Wormhole, the Science Channel’s show about the mysteries of life and the universe. He was invited onto the program to discuss the theory that the human experience can be boiled down to something like an incredibly advanced, metaphysical version of The Sims.
It’s an idea that every college student with a gravity bong and The Matrix on DVD has thought of before, but Rich is a well-regarded scientist, the director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and is currently writing an as-yet-untitled book about the subject, so we’re going to go ahead and take him seriously.
The essence of Rich’s theory is that a “programmer” from the future designed our reality to simulate the course of what the programmer considers to be ancient history—for whatever reason, maybe because he’s bored.
According to Moore’s Law, which states that computing power doubles roughly every two years, all of this will be theoretically possible in the future. Sooner or later, we’ll get to a place where simulating a few billion people—and making them believe they are sentient beings with the ability to control their own destinies—will be as easy as sending a stranger a picture of your genitals on your phone.
This hypothesis—versions of which have been kicked around for centuries—is becoming the trippy notion of the moment for philosophers, with people like Nick Bostrom, the director of Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute, seriously considering the premise.
Until recently, the simulation argument hadn’t really attracted traditional researchers. That’s not to say he is the first scientist to predict our ability to run realistic simulations (among others, Ray Kurzweil did that in his 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines), but he is one of the first to argue we might already be living inside one. Rich has even gone one step further by attempting to prove his theories through physics, citing things like the observable pixelation of the tiniest matter and the eerie similarities between quantum mechanics, the mathematical rules that govern our universe, and the creation of video game environments.
Just think: Whenever you fuck up there could be the intergalactic version of an overweight 13-year-old Korean boy controlling you and screaming “Shit!” into an Xbox headset. It sort of takes the edge off things.
Continue reading HERE.
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NobelPrize.org “Nobelprize.org is the official web site of the Nobel Prize. Here you will find information for every Nobel Prize since 1901, including the Nobel Laureates’ biographies, Nobel Lectures, interviews, photos, articles, video clips, press releases, educational games and more.”
Many scientists believe that all the water on the earth was originally vented into the atmosphere by volcanoes. – Provided by RandomHistory.com
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Crushing Debt Drove Me to Kosovo — And Then to Iraq
Ten years ago, I was nearly 30 and over $90,000 in debt. I had spent my twenties trying to build an interesting life; I had two degrees; I had lived in New York and the Bay Area; I had worked in a series of interesting jobs; I spent a lot of time traveling overseas. But I had also made a couple of critically stupid and shortsighted decisions. I had invested tens of thousands of dollars in a master’s degree in landscape architecture that I realized I didn’t want halfway through. While maxing out my student loans, I had also collected a toxic mix of maxed-out credit cards, personal loans, and $2,000 I had borrowed from my father for a crisis long since forgotten. My life consisted of loan deferments and minimum payments.
Like so many other lost children, I had fallen into a career in IT. The work was boring, but led to jobs with cool organizations—a lot of jobs, because I kept quitting them. As soon as I had any money in the bank, I’d quit and go backpacking in Southeast Asia. My adventures were life-changing experiences, but I was eventually left with a CV that was pretty scattershot.
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O brave new world that has such penises in’t – Pharyngula.
Scientists discover how the brain ages.
Shale gas won’t make Europe energy-independent – tech – 13 September 2012 – New Scientist.
The impossibility of total vigilance against terrorism – opinion – 13 September 2012 – New Scientist.
Antidepressants, sleeping pills and anxiety drugs may increase driving risk | Science Codex.
Mourning Their Losses – Scrub Jays Hold Funerals For Fallen Comrades – Science News – redOrbit.
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What a Hell hole! The giant desert crater known as The Door to Hell which has been on fire for more than 40 YEARS
At first glance, it could be a dramatic scene from a science-fiction movie.But this giant hole of fire in the heart of the Karakum Desert is not the aftermath of an attack on Earth, launched from outer space.It is a crater made by geologists more than 40 years ago, and the flames within have been burning ever since.
Welcome to Derweze in Turkmenistan – or, as the locals have called it, ‘The Door to Hell’.
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Harvest – The Big Picture
Harvest is a time of plenty, when the season’s hard work is rewarded by bounty. Many of the rhythms of our lives are shaped by the gathering of crops, even if most of us now live in cities. Worldwide, festivals and rituals mark the passage from growing season to harvest, with indigenous and popular practices making fall in the Northern Hemisphere a festive time. This year sees a reduced harvest in much of the world as extreme weather decimated many regions. Half of the United States is in prolonged drought, as well as much of Europe. In India, the monsoon is 20 percent off the annual average. Food prices are expected to rise by 2013 as demand taxes supplies, and later the price rises will transfer to the meat industry as costs of feed for livestock are passed on. Gathered here are images of farms industrial and traditional, crops critical and obscure, and harvest festivals among drought and bounty. — Lane Turner (41 photos total)
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Self-Control May Not Be a Limited Resource After All | ScienceBlog.com.
Study: Throw of dice can be predicted – UPI.com.
Mixed findings emerge on immigrant families’ home environments | e! Science News.
Studies shed light on how to reduce the amount of toxins in plant-derived foods | e! Science News.
Less wear, longer life for memory storage device | e! Science News.
Official US poverty rate remains high, middle class incomes decline | e! Science News.
New African monkey species identified | e! Science News.
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Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood
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Lithuania: A Walking Tour of Vilnius
Vilnius was founded in the 14th century by Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. According to legend, Gediminas had a dream about an iron wolf howling on a hill. He consulted a pagan priest, who told him the meaning of the dream: “The Iron Wolf represents a castle and a city which will be established by you on this site. This city will be the capital of the Lithuanian lands and the dwelling of their rulers, and the glory of their deeds shall echo throughout the world.” Today the city is a wonderland of magnificent architecture — churches, cathedrals, castles, palaces, and majestic public buildings, centered around an enormous city hall square. Vilnius is also full of interesting shops, cafes and nightclubs, making it a celebrated destination for visitors from all over the world.
MORE.
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Human remains discovered in search for King Richard III | e! Science News.
Computer learning to read lips to detect emotions | KurzweilAI.
William Gibson on Why Sci-Fi Writers Are (Thankfully) Almost Always Wrong | Underwire | Wired.com.
Mars rover Curiosity working ‘flawlessly’: NASA.
Are our bones well designed? Insects and crabs have a leg up on us.
NASA Global Hawk and satellites attend Tropical Storm Nadine’s ‘Birth’.
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Love in the Time of Consumer Debt
He graduated from college at age 21 with no plan. Rather, his plan was to keep his three minimum wage part-time jobs and controlling girlfriend, a lifestyle that rendered him nearly invisible to his friends and family. He felt guilty for disappearing, so when he was able to hang out, all the pizza and beer in the world was on him. The girlfriend, shattered by a grisly family death, either couldn’t or didn’t work. He put all their bills on plastic and became the architect of the five digit consumer debt that defined his twenties.
This mismanaged generosity is his fatal flaw. When I met him, he was 25. Kindness poured out of him effortlessly. I’d known plenty of self-described nice guys who were more accurately misogynists or cowards. Here in my midst was a guy for whom unaffected niceness was just a matter of course. He had a valuable comic book collection, but would just as soon give a rare issue to a friend’s kid as keep it untouched in plastic. He was quietly vegetarian, and if pressed on the topic would explain that eating meat made him feel guilty, and so he didn’t. Despite being virtuous, he was not a snore. His jokes were dark and vulgar but never mean-spirited. I was a goner.
MORE.
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Frozen Woolly Mammoth Cells Could Be Alive
Woolly mammoth fragments found in Siberia may contain living cells that could lead to the cloning of the extinct creatures, scientists said Tuesday. It is estimated that woolly mammoths died out approximately 10,000 years ago, though some may have survived longer in some areas. Hair, soft tissue, and bone marrow from the prehistoric animal were found 328 feet (100 m) underground during a summer expedition. Some scientists speculate that mammoth cells preserved in permafrost may be able to be used to clone the animal. However, more testing is required to determine whether the cells are still in fact alive.
More
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Steve Jobs and Bill Gates
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Donors like giving up kidney through belly button | ScienceBlog.com.
Acupuncture May Be Helpful for Chronic Pain | ScienceBlog.com.
5 New Plant Activator Compounds Discovered – Science News – redOrbit.
Short Sharp Science: Today on New Scientist: 12 September 2012.
Sliding metals show fluidlike behavior, new clues to wear.
Botanical Wednesday: Starburst – Pharyngula.
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The Enduring Legacy of China’s Great Famine
What happens when death and violence on an appalling scale are covered up, as they were in China’s Great Leap Forward, which ended 50 years ago this year but is still a taboo topic in China?
Posts written by the IHT’s Page Two columnists.
The consequences of the famine and political violence of Mao Zedong’s push for full agricultural collectivization and breakneck industrialization live on in the psyches of Chinese people today, according to Zhou Xun, the author of a new book, “The Great Famine in China, 1958-1962.” I’ve written more on the book in my Letter from China column.
“Society became terribly violent during the famine,” during which as many as 45 million people may have died, Ms. Zhou said in an interview.
MORE.
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Mugshots Of Celebrities If They Lived In The 1920s
Mugshot Doppleganger mixes current celebrities’ actual mugshots with mugshots from the 1920s.
